How iPirates are ruining it for the rest of us

I’m a Jailbreaker, I admit it. I can’t imagine having an iPhone without it being Jailbroken. I’ve tried, twice, and the iPhone without all the possibilities of Jailbreaking just isn’t that useful for me. Having said that, Apple’s latest attempt to stop Jailbreaking on the 3Gs shows they are beginning to take jailbreaking seriously. Apple has tried in the past, usually each time they release a new OS, to hinder jailbreaking. However, this time, they changed the device in mid-production. Why the drastic measure, and why now?

Apple’s new tactics are in direct response to something that has little to do with Jailbreaking itself, but is only possible on a Jailbroken device, pirating app store apps. Back in February, when Crackulous was first released, the writing was already on the wall. If a single user could buy an app, and share it with anyone, this directly effects Apple’s revenue. I won’t even go into how this hurts all the small developer shops and single person developers working on iPhone apps, it’s pretty obvious.

The latest numbers show that 1.5 million iPhones are using pirated software. Just think what that means to Apple. If each of those apps only cost $1, and Apple gets 30% of that, you do the math. Now that there are pirate app stores like Appulous, the possibilities are endless for cutting into those Apple profits.

I have been Jailbreaking since before there was even an App Store. When the App Store came out, I actually was not that impressed by it because of all the great software available through Cydia already. That has slowly changed, and all three, the Cydia Store, Cydia free apps and App Store are a vital part of what makes the iPhone great for me. However, after seeing the figures, I can understand why Apple is beginning to take a harder stance against Jailbreaking. Look, I don’t buy the whole it eats up bandwidth, it’s a security issue, blah, blah, that Apple released a couple of months ago. It all comes down to profit. Once again, lets thank those idiots who believe software should be “free”. Open and free do not mean the same thing. If a company or person takes the time to build an application, then they should expect compensation. If said company/person wants to give that application away, good for them. Look people, we’re talking about apps that usually cost less than $5. If you can’t spend $5 or less to support something you enjoy, then how did you afford an iPhone in the first place?

Yea the whole Installous and pirated apps thing is so blown out of the water. People should not be doing this because apple will get so fed up that they will sue like Saurik(Jay Freeman) and all other developers and make them stop developing on the jailbreak. Then we will all be screwed with no jailbreak or unlocks or cydia. What fun will that be.